1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to methods and data processing system readable media, and more particularly, to methods of profiling a user and data processing system readable media for carrying out those methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many different Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) or sites are interested in creating or using profiles of their users. One way to obtain a profile for a user is to rely on information that the user may voluntarily provide. One problem with this is that the user may lie or give inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete data regarding himself or herself.
Another attempt at establishing a profile for a user may include reviewing the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address of the user and determining the geographic location and time zone for the user. However, that information may be misleading depending upon the ISP and where it is located. For example, if the user is using America Online, the user may be listed as residing in Virginia and being in the Eastern Time zone. In reality, the user may be in a different country and residing within a time zone many hours different from the Eastern Time zone. Additionally, many different users may be using the same computer (same IP address). Clearly, such information is of little use in determining interests or other information regarding an individual. Even if the information regarding state and time zone are correct and only one user is using a specific IP address with a local ISP, this may yield little useful information about the individual user. The ISP may have thousands or millions of users.